jo2outbound said:
Hey man I have get pains in my shoulders also when working out, I've done a couple things to keep up progress but at the same time allow them to heal. I don't know about push ups because they don't hurt my shoulders but when i bench press if I go to low with it my shoulders will start to pinch due to to much range in motion.
The likely culprit is that you are not properly setting your shoulder in the socket, and/or properly applying torque through the shoulder capsule (if you are getting pain in the bottom of a benchpress, and your shoulders are flared out 90 degrees from your feet, then this is definately the case).
from what my doctor told me the reason my shoulders are starting to hurt, is because my muscles are developing faster then my joints and tendons can keep up. you might have the same thing, in that case you need to start doing exercises that will strengthen your rotator cuff's and tendons leading up to it.
False. Unless you are taking steroids, your tendons and ligaments will develop strength on the same scale as the muscles that they are attached to and operate in the same movement plane.
The issues with the shoulders and why so many people wind up with problems (including me) is basically threefold
1) The Shoulder is the most complex joint in the body. There are tendons/muscles and ligaments criss-crossing all over the place, which is why you can move your arm in a multitude of directions (there is a chrome app/website called bio digital human, if you want to get a good 3D look for yourself). The problem is the more mobility a joint has, the more unstable it is, especially under load. Basically with any pressing movement you need to apply torque to the joint and remove all the slack that is providing it the freedom of movement. www.mobilitywod.com and videos from Westside Barbell on youtube, talking about bench press technique, describe how one actually goes about, applying torque and removing slack from the joint.
2)What your doctor was probably getting at, and didn't do a good job of explaining is (and this ties in with my first point). Is that while you are making the muscles (and the corresponding ligaments and tendons) on the anterior (front) part of your shoulder/body stronger through benchpress/push ups, all that pressing movement does very little to strengthen the muscles and attachments on the POSTERIOR (back) side of your shoulders. Which is where the weakness that your Doc was referring to, in all probability is located. The biggest culprits for this training bias is poor technique (proper technique in the bench/push ups, involves applying torque through your shoulders/arms, and actively PULLING either the bar to your chest or your chest to the ground) and ego (most people only train what they can see, and what will make them look "better" without a shirt on).
3) Depending on how long you have been training, this training bias will eventually start to limit your mobility as you become over developed on the one side (if someone has ever told you, or if you have ever noticed that your shoulders are always rounded forward, even when relaxed, then you definately have an imbalance). Part of this is due to adhesions and scar tissue and micro trauma, collecting on the one side, effectively shortening the length of all the connective tissue. The other reason is your body's built in self preservation mechanisms. Your body likes balance, if it starts noticing one side is stronger than the other it will apply the brakes, to keep you from hurting yourself.
